The survey, which was conducted over six months at industry trade shows, including Oracle Collaborate and Oracle Open World, found that only 11 percent of respondents had a mobile strategy for all supply chain operations outside the four walls. Additionally, more than 30 percent of respondents reported that their operations had no mobile capabilities outside the supply chain walls. Just over 27 percent of respondents conducted some transactions from tablets and smartphones.
The implementation picture does not get any brighter inside the organization's four walls. Of those surveyed, about 30 percent said their supply chain operations are not at all mobile, and a mere 16 percent claimed that all their supply chain interactions inside the four walls were mobile. Furthermore, only about a third of those surveyed reported some wireless scanning and printing capabilities.
"Despite all the discussion, mobility in the supply chain, like other emerging areas such as cloud and big data, still requires a lot of exploration and definition before it can really add value to operations," said Brad Huff, executive vice president and general manager at TAKE Supply Chain. "Although smartphone and tablet usage is seemingly nonstop among consumers, and almost as common among business users, the challenge with the new, mobile supply chain, is that it is in its infancy."
The survey also found that among the top challenge areas in supply chains visibility and control, and data accuracy and accessibility are virtually tied as the top issues, with cost reduction and management a close third.
TAKE Supply Chain conducted the survey with 145 procurement specialists, IT directors and operations managers at 96 organizations.
